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There was a soft thud as Einar landed in front of the control panel. He didn't have anyone to get him out of a sticky situation, and it was only a matter of time before the druids realized he wasn't in his cell. He had to be quick. Einar deactivated his mask and put his hand on the center console. The whole thing lit up in a bright red-ish-purple.
Shit
. It was password protected. Einar groaned as he pulled up his own software and began the painstaking process of running through numbers.
Eventually, after minutes of waiting, the console beeped and he was in, Einar quickly began running through the system that logged prisoners. Hundreds of faces flashed by until- Einar froze. There he was. "Dad," Einar breathed, "I found you." He quickly selected the file and began reading. Xolo, Age: 34, Status: deceased. his breath hitched and tears began welling up in his eyes. "No," Einar pleaded, "please, no." The world began to close in as Einar collapsed, tears falling onto the cold, dark metal floor.
You're being too loud
, Einar thought to himself,
they're going to find you
.
Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, he didn't really have anything left to fight for or anyone to go home to after all. Maybe they would just kill him. That sounded nice. He wouldn't have to deal with this anymore, he wouldn't have to deal with anything.
No
. He couldn't give the druids the satisfaction of killing him and destroying the last remnants of Noxsia. He forced himself to get up and wipe the tears away. "I need to get off this ship," Einar muttered to himself. He looked up at the ventilation shaft he'd entered the control room in. There was no time to wander around the vents until he found a cargo bay. He had to go through the main passages and hallways. Einar turned around and prepared himself for a fight, grabbing his blade and activating it. He took a deep breath, activated his mask, and opened the door. The hall was empty.
That's not right.
Einar got more and more tense as he ran through the - too empty - halls of the Galra battle cruiser. Finally, he entered an empty cargo hold. There was a ship right there, ready for him to take off and escape. "This is too easy," Einar whispered, "I need to focus." He closed his eyes, trying to ignore the image of his father's face, and took a deep breath. A soft blue glow began to erupt from the markings all over his body. He searched his surroundings, trying to find the weird energy that the druids gave off.
There
. He opened his eyes, the glow fading a bit and lunged for the druid, barely missing it with his sword.
"Hmm, clever," the druid said, his voice making Einar's skin crawl and the hair on his tail stand up. Einar was about to go for another swing when-
crap!
He quickly rolled to the side as a dark blast of magic whooshed past his face,
another one!? As if my day wasn't hard enough
. Both druids lunged at him. He grabbed an old sentry head from behind him with his prehensile tail and threw it at the first druid. It hit the druid square in the face. Einar didn't have time to congratulate himself as the second druid shot a blast of magic at him. He deflected it with his blade and slashed the druid in the face - well, mask - slicing part of it off. Before he had time to recover, Einar kicked him square in the chest, knocking him backward.
Just as Einar was about to finish the second druid off, the first was there, preparing another blast of magic. Einar jumped back just in time - again - and threw his blade at its heart. He missed.
Damnit, Einar! Why would you do that?!
That thought sounded a bit too much like Kolivan for his own liking.
Both druids were up now, preparing for another attack. Einar activated his powers, hoping they would be enough to handle a blast as he tried to get his blade back. He surged forward, desperately trying to get to his blade and the druids shot their damn magic blast at him. The first one missed, but the second one didn't. Einar was thrown against the wall as the searing pain set in. He groaned, forcing himself to get up again and leaped to grab his blade. He threw it again,
Kolivan forgive me,
but this time it hit one of the druids in the face. It let out an ear splitting scream and vanished into a puff of purple and black smoke.
One down, one to go, Einar clutched his side, wincing at the pain that radiated out of his wound when he touched it. "How disappointing," the last druid said, picking up Einar's blade and inspecting it, "unfortunately for you, I won't be as easy to kill." It threw the blade. Einar jumped back, the blade landing right where he was seconds before, missing him. Unfortunately, the second magic blast didn't.
There was a bright flash, then the world went dark. He couldn't feel anything but pain.
I guess I really was supposed to die today,
Einar thought,
I gave it my all. I guess my all just wasn't enough
. He closed his eyes, strangely at peace with his inevitable demise at the hands of the druid.
"Get up," a soft, feminine voice called out, "Einar, you need to get up.”
"Mom? I-is that you?"
"Yes, sweetie."
Suddenly the pain was gone. Einar was in his old house, the wind softly blowing the curtains of the open window, his mother's face, lit by the sun, was right in front of him, smiling warmly. He leaned into the soft hands cradling his face and tears began streaming out of his eyes. "I missed you so much," he sobbed, reaching his arms around his mother.
"I know baby, but you can't stay here"
"what?" He looked up into his mother's eyes, "why not? I want to stay here with you! I don't want to go back! Please, don't make me go back!"
"I wish you could stay." His mother sighed, "but now is not your time. Your story is just beginning"
"what? What does that- where are we?"
"I-" his mother began crying "I can't explain, there's not enough time"
"Not enough time for what?! What's going on?!"
"You need to get up and fight. Fight to your very last breath. Fight for the Noxsians who didn't get the chance. Please"
"But-"
"Einar!" Her voice was fading, "I love you baby!"
She was gone. The warm comfort of his old home was gone. He was in that cold, dark cargo bay again. He could sense the druid getting closer and feel tears streaming down his face. It hurt. Everything hurt.
One more
, he thought,
one more, and then you can go home
. He got up, reaching for his blade and pulling it out of the wall. "Oh?" The druid said, "still going, are we?" The air crackled as the druid powered up another blast.
"Let's finish this!" Einar snarled, lunging at the druid. The druid reached for him, but he slid under the attack, slicing its arm. Einar kicked himself up and lunged again, the druid blocked him and threw him aside. He rolled and recovered, coming at the druid again, this time hitting it in the leg. He whipped around and stabbed it in the back, the blade slipping through the druid's skin and bones satisfyingly. Just like the last druid, this one screamed that awful scream and disappeared into a puff of black and purple smoke.
The blue glow coming from Einar's markings winked out and he collapsed to the ground.
Come on Einar, get up!
His entire body was screaming.
Get up... please,
his muscles refused to work and his eyes wouldn't stay open. Someone was coming. He needed to keep going. He needed to get up. But he couldn't. His eyes closed and the world went dark.
* * *
"Mmh" Einar grunted, opening his eyes. The room he was in had a soft purple light, but this light was much cooler than the ones on the battle cruiser.
Shit
, he was in one of the rebel bases. He sat up quickly. Too quickly. Pain radiated out of his ribs and he fell back down onto the bed, grunting in pain. "Guess I'm not going anywhere."
"No, you're not"
Einar froze. Kolivan and Antok were standing next to the bed, Einar grimaced. He looked over at them. Well, mostly, the bandage that covered the right half of his face got in the way a little. Antok gave Kolivan a look, and he left the room, leaving Einar and Antok alone. "Look, Antok," Einar said, breaking the silence, "I'm sorry for, you know, leaving" he said, pulling his knees into his chest.
Antok sighed and sat down next to him. "I can't say I really understand, but you did what you thought was right. If I was in your situation, I probably would have done the same"
"I found him. My dad." Antok’s eyes widened.
"He-" Antok looked away, "He's gone, isn't he?"
Einar looked down and nodded. Antok awkwardly pulled him into a hug. They stayed like that for what seemed like hours before Einar eventually broke the silence.
"I don't have anywhere to go anymore." He said, before softly adding "or anything to fight for. Not to mention the fact that Kolivan would probably never let me back into the Blades"
to that, Antok chuckled lightly and said, "I can probably help out with Kolivan. He just wants what's best for the Blades." He took a moment to think before adding "speaking of, I'm sure we can help with the other stuff too"
Einar smiled, "ok" he said, leaning on Antok's shoulder once again "I'd like that," he whispered, closing his eyes and dozing off.